


Christmas lights

by jessamoo



Category: Doctor Who, Holby City
Genre: Angst, Crossover, F/F, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 14:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13168764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessamoo/pseuds/jessamoo
Summary: Crossover of the prompts "20 years later" and "Anything for dw and berena" for holby secret santa. Kate gets a surprise visitor and meets Serena and Bernie at christmas.





	Christmas lights

Kate Stewart switched her desk lamp on with a sigh. An unopened wine bottle sat in front of her complete with a sparkling silver bow.

Her birthday - She pretended not to think about which one. She had smiled graciously at her over excited collegues when they presented her with the present but had declined their offer of drinks. She had given the excuse that her kids were coming up for her birthday - But in truth she had told them not to, despite all their protestations. Instead she would be doing the same thing she always did. Working at UNIT. The way she saw it, millions of other people were celebrating their birthday right now too. She'd give up her birthday so they could have a safe one.

She grabbed the bottle from the desk and strolled to the window. It was times like this she would think of her father. Not the times they'd stopped talking. The good times. She hadn't known the half of his life and she had resented it. Now she told the same lies to her own children. But her father had tried to tell her, in his own way. Her mother didn't realise that when he told her goodnight stories, he was telling her about a kind old man in a big blue box, and all the adventures he had.

She clutched the wine to her chest, staring at the stars. She never knew when he would come back, only that he would. That one day she would hear that whirring sound again, that marvellous sound that had followed her through her dreams her whole life. She could almost hear it now. She would be here when The Doctor returned. Even if it was her birthday. 

Impossibly the TARDIS sound seemed to be getting louder.

Suddenly, with a whoosh of air, papers flew across the room. Kate span around, normally perfect hair flying everywhere.

Kate's breath hitched in her throat. She untangled her dangly earrings from where they had got caught on her scarf, almost letting herself get distracted by this until the TARDIS doors swung open.

Loud clanking music came from inside and there was a lot of flashing lights in there. 

Then a face appeared. The face was obscured by a large floppy sun hat and a pair of pink sunglasses in the shape of pineapples. Kate couldn't move from the window.

Then the door shut.

Kate had the insane urge to laugh. When the doors opened again the noise and lights were gone, as were the hat and sunglasses. Instead a woman stood there. Rosy cheeks and bright blonde starlight hair. 

"You're him, aren't you? I mean, her - I mean - you've changed!" Kate cried, her thoughts finally managing to catch up.

The Doctor frowned, leaning out of the TARDIS. "Who?" She asked. "Oh, yes! I am. At least I hope I am. Otherwise this would be a bit awkward." She grinned. "Come on then."

"Do we need to call for back up?" Kate asked, stepping forward. 

"Oh, I'm not here to save anyone this time. I do take time off you know." She beckoned Kate into the TARDIS. This time a slightly bewildered Kate complied.

"We haven't got much time." The Doctor said, pushing at buttons and controls as the doors shut behind Kate. Then she let out a laugh. "Get it? Because we're in a time machine. It's a joke. No? Alright then..."

Kate shook her head. "Look, if there isn't anything wrong, what are you doing here? I can't take a day off when you aren't here. I don't have time for an intergalatic joyride. Much fun as that might be. So if there's really nothing wrong..."

"Didn't say anything wasn't wrong. And it isn't intergalatic, it's cross dimensional. You can put that wine in the drinks cabinet if you like. I would suggest drinking it but, I'm driving."

Kate didn't feel like herself. She was normally calm and in control. Now she felt anything but. "I should be on earth, with UNIT, in case something happens."

The Doctor smiled gently. She walked over to Kate putting her hands on her shoulders. "You protect Earth when I can't, and I'm grateful for that. But tonight I'm helping you instead." She shrugged. "Call it a birthday present, if that makes you feel better." She nodded to the doors and the TARDIS stilled. "We're here."

 

The wide room Kate stepped out into was dark, apart from fairylights strewn like multi coloured stars across the walls. Distantly, from the main light source in the middle of the room Kate could hear the unmistakable sound of hospital equipment beeping. 

"Where are we?" Her whisper sounded deafening in the quiet.

"Over there. There's some people I want you to meet."

As she got nearer, Kate saw the hospital bed surrounded by equipment, beeping and blinking. A woman lay in the bed, thin and frail. Another woman sat holding her hand, short grey hair looking like she'd run her hand through it several times.

"Hello." Kate said quietly.

The other woman barely seemed surprised at the arrival of the TARDIS. When she looked up, she took a sharp intake of breath.

"God, you look just like her." She shook her head. "The Doctor said you would, but...My God."

Then she stared at the woman in the hospital bed. Kate finally looked too. And had to look again. The woman's face was familiar...Older, more lined, but....hers. The woman in the bed was her. Maybe in a decade or two, but her.

"How - What's..." Words failed Kate. She looked around for the Doctor but couldn't see her in the darkness. This didn't look like a hospital room.

"Serena Campbell. I would say it's nice to meet you but it's mostly just very strange." Serena gave her a wry smile.

Kate nodded. "Kate Stewart. Is she..."

"She's you, I think. Bernie. Only a you from somewhere else. I suppose there must be a me where you're from too. That's a thought."

"What's wrong with her?" Kate didn't need to be a doctor to see the unhealthy pallor of the woman's skin, the uneven breathing as she slept, even if she wasn't in a hospital bed.

"Cancer. It's a vicious bastard. All these years and we still can't cure it. She used to be in the army, you know. She always thought that was how she would go. In a blaze of glory. Not like this."

"Military? I know someone who would approve." Kate smiled gently, trying to match Serena's matter of the fact tone.

"You're not in the military?"

Kate shrugged, trying to figure out how much she should explain. "Sort of. On a wider scale." She hesitated. "Can I ask you something?"

Serena shrugged, which Kate knew was a yes. "Would you go back? Now you know someone like the Doctor exists, that she can bring me here. Take you back anywhere you wanted. Would you go back?"

Serena frowned up at her. Then she stared at Bernie, as if she were telling her the answer. "I've lost so many people. My daughter, My mother, my friends. Now I might lose my wife." She sighed wearily. "Would I give her, this, our life for the last twenty years, to have all of those people back? Maybe. I don't know. But that's the good thing about living in a world that doesn't normally have time travel or magic solutions. You don't have to make that choice. You don't get to. All you get is the time you're here for. All you get is one life. So you have to cling to all the good whilst it's there. All the love. So, that's what I'll do. I'll hold on as tight as I can for as long as I can." She picked Bernie's hand up and kissed her fingers lightly.

From somewhere outside Kate heard carolers. 'O Holy Night' floated up to her. She saw that it was snowing. "It's snowing outside." She breathed.

"Yes." Serena stated. "It's Christmas."

Kate couldn't help but smile as tears pricked her eyes. Something bad usually happened at Christmas. But this wasn't bad...it was just life.

"Oh..." Kate thought, remembering her unopened birthday present. "Do you like wine?"

 

When she was back on the TARDIS, Kate let herself let go. She gripped the railings as emotion overcame her. "Why did you take me there? What was the point of that?" She shouted as the TARDIS set off into space again.

"To show you what your missing whilst you're sat alone in your office every night being miserable."

"What I'm missing? You mean finding someone I love and being taken from them?"

The doctor slammed a control angrily. "No. Just the someone you love part. Don't you see? To be alone, waiting for something bad to happen isn't any way for you to live. You have to find all the happiness that little world of yours has to offer. What's the point of saving the world if you don't have anyone to enjoy it with?"

"That's what you do!" Kate cried.

The Doctor took on that infuriatingly gentle tone again. "Yes, that is what I do. And it's very lonely. But I do that so people like you don't have to. Human life is precious. You don't get another. It's selfish not to grasp it and enjoy it."

Kate shook her head. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying..." The Doctor took hold of her hand firmly. "That you could have a love like the one you just saw. You don't have to give anything up. Just let something in. I'm saying the end isn't what is important. It's all the bits in between."

Kate nodded, despite her tears.

"So, Kate Lethbridge Stewart, I want you to promise me one thing. That when love comes knocking on your door, you'll look her straight in the eyes, and you won't turn away."

 

Six months had gone by since then. Two Christmases in half a year was a strange thought. But here Kate was, her own worlds Christmas. She was at work, but she was planning to at least go home. At some point, probably.

There was a knock on the door and she beckoned them to enter. One of her security guards stepped in. "Ma'am, our new head of security." He gestured to the woman entering behind him. "Didn't have time to introduce her earlier what with the containment breach on level thirteen-"

Kate held her hand up again and he fell silent. Then she looked up at her new head of security.

"Serena!" She gasped.

The woman who had stepped in was the younger one of the woman in the hospital room. She knew it instantly. Her eyes were unmistakable. Even her hair was the same style, though this woman's was still dark brown.

"No, Ma'am." Even the same voice. "Captain Felicity Carter."

Kate shook her head. Yes, she'd had a different name in the other universe. That made sense. But it was the same woman. It was the same...

What was it The Doctor had said? Look her in the eyes. Don't turn away. She thinks about Serena holding Bernie's hand. Clinging on for dear life, literally.

"I just have some more reports to do then I'll be heading home. Is there anything else Ma'am?" Felicity asked.

Kate smiled. "Yes. Do you like wine? It is Christmas, after all."

The other woman smiled, nodded, and shut the door behind her.


End file.
